


Bet

by Naaklasolus



Series: So, a Mando, a Dathomirian and an Umbaran Walk Into a Cantina [7]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cipher plays diplomat, Gen, Hellions are a Messed Up Bunch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-04 10:24:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14590986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naaklasolus/pseuds/Naaklasolus
Summary: As the campaign on Umbara carries on, the Hellions and Outcasts manage to snag some rest.





	Bet

**Author's Note:**

> Another part of the very awesome collab with OutcastTrip1995, the Outcasts belong to them!

Knockout couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh as the long march finally came to a halt, allowing both units to finally receive some rest and an opportunity to try to mend whatever relationship they had with the Outcasts, the man whirled around as he heard the familiar clicking sound of a banshee to find Chaos already dealing with the situation as the scout shot it as he walked past. Three times. 

One would've killed it. Two meant Chaos wanted to be left alone. Three meant.... "Shit." Knockout says, the cheerful captain was starting to let Krell get to him. The old medic turned his attention to his little brother who was assisting Wrench and Zed in setting up the temporary triage. "Voss, go talk to our brother, would ya?" 

Voss's dark eyes flickered to Chaos before meeting the elder clone's. "I'm going to meditate before I do something I really shouldn't." Voss states in that vague and omnious way he had as he glanced at Chaos again. "Just let him cooldown. Cipher mentioned he and Swipes got into it earlier.". 

Knockout sighed, rubbing his face wearily as he looked at the two CMOs before nodding and looking back at the kid, taking note of his body language which was aggressive and tense, he was defiantly hitting his limit "What did Swipes say to him, exactly?".

Voss gave a half-shrug. "Cipher didn't go into details. He just said that he'd handle it.".

"Fine, and stay away from Swipes, alright? If he knows you're one of his brothers, it might not be pretty." Knockout advises which earned an annoyed look from the younger medic, like he was suggesting something stupidly obvious. The kid's eyes glanced behind the older medic, which he followed to see Swipes leaning against a tree and giving Chaos a slight smirk. 

"Ya honestly think I want anything to do with any of  _ner vode?_ Flipping bastards tried to murder me, numerous times. Hell, I have this thing because of one of 'em." Voss points out as he held his cybernetic hand up and shoved Knockout out of his way with enough force to tell the older medic he wasn't in the mood for chatting. And with that, Voss continued on his way, muttering lowly and very creatively under his breath about taking a rusty vibroblade to whoever almost killed them all in the airstike. Yep, there was his Priest buddy, peachy.

"Did I hear that right?" Wrench asks, catching Knockout's attention which caused him to look back at the others to find Zed giving him a concerned look while Wrench was watching Voss in wariness.  

"Depends on what you think you heard and which one of us said what." Knockout responds as he joined them, checking on Jumpstart's progress with Smooth. "Alright, son, I got this. Go babysit Voss for me, would ya?".

Jumpstart nod as he stood and hurried off, allowing Knockout to finish Smooth's checkup as he listened to the two CMOs discuss the setup for the triage station. "I could really go for a drink right now." Knockout remarks as he pressed his right hand against his left shoulder for pressure as he rolled it, wincing slightly as pain surged through it. He had landed on it wrong when he tried to separate the idiots from the fight a few hours ago, at least the Outcast was still knocked out. "Perfably something strong.".

 "Well, I'm not sharing." Wrench responds as he checked on Scrapper's injuries. "How's the shoulder?".

"Sore." Knockout responds as he moved onto the next patient. "And who the hell started that fight earlier?".

"Infiltration. No clue which one since they're all stab happy." Zed responds as she walked over to one of the victims. "But Cabur handled it pretty well. The Zey card was  nice touch.".

Knockout didn't even bother to acknowledge that as he looked towards Wrench. "If Cipher wanders this way, say no and it's just the old Gilamar-Priest cadet rivalry.".

"What are you going on about?" Wrench asks in a rather snappish tone, reminding the clone of Sarge. Yeah, Voss had gotten to him, add that with what Krell was doing and all that crap. 

"Just do it. I ain't in the mood to deal with that idiot's antics right now.".

And speak of the devil, the white-haired moron joined them with a huge smile. "Ah, if it isn't my lovely sistah and my pain the in the ass brother!" Cipher greeted warmly as he wrapped an arm around Zed who rolled her eyes while Knockout mentally counted to ten. "And the wrench menace. Cipher heard you and Voss were having issues.".

"Whatever you're planning, go bother somebody else because I'm busy patching this idiot up." Wrench responds as he gestured towards Skippy, who had been one of the idiots who got into a fight with the Outcasts. "And it's fine. Old cadet rivalry.".

"Ooh....you're a Gilamar?" Cipher says with an understanding nod. "Don't let him get ta ya, he jus' loves screwing with Gilamar's _verde."._

Wrench cast an unimpressed look at the twins as the ARC wondered away, whistling some random tune. "He's not like Voss, is he?".

"Gods no, he's actually reasonable and less likely to kill us.Plus, I ran a few tests. Perfectly sane.". 

* * *

 

Cipher sighed as he wondered over to the Outcasts side of the camp. "Alright, listen up!" Cipher says, earning a mixed reaction of glares and weary looks that were borderline murderous. "Cipher's bored and this shit going on between our units is getting old so who wants to stopbeing an idiot and play a bit of regular sabacc? ".

Cipher watched as the Outcasts's ARC raised his hand, resulting in his companion to sigh as the ARC started to nudge him and raise his hand as well.  And they were sooned joined by their infiltration team, minus Swipes and Quicksilver who had decided to be on guard duty with Chaos, which was being supervised by Blue and Carrot from their respective perches.

 _"Cab'ika,_ you want in?" Cipher asks as he looked towards his mentor who was chatting with the grumpy guy with the cheerful name.....Sparky? Sunshine? Happy? Damn, he was bad with names, he knew Cory knew the guy. "An' shouldn't ya be payin' a visit to the medics before Zed tracks you down, Captain?".

"Considering who I'm talking to? Why don't you go f --" The Alpha began to say in an almost irritated manner. Right, he was still pretty pissed about the last match, maybe it wasn't a good idea to scam a guy out of his personal objects when he was high on painkillers?

"Alpha-Thirteen, if you finish that sentence, you'll be in medical!" Zed snaps as she appeared from the mist, looking rather annnoyed which causing the Alpha's mouth to snap shut instantly which earned some amused laughs from the Outcasts. Bingo! "Do I make myself clear?".

"Yes, ma'am.".

Zed gave a slight nod as she looked towards Cipher. "No strip sabacc or scamming ARC troopers, do I make myself clear, Sergeant?" Zed inquires as she nod at Caboose. "Seriously, if you scam him, I'm siccing  _Voss_ on you.".

Cipher waved his hand in dismissial. "Fine, whatever, ruin Cipher's fun." Cipher says snippishly but froze at the glare Zed gave him while Cabur simply gave him a look as if asking why he would sass the woman. "Understood. But Cipher's still betting!".

Zed sighed as she walked over to the two captains and directed them towards tirage. "Strip sabacc?" The tech guy from the Outcasts asks curiously.

"Another time, junior." Cipher responds as he found a nice clear area in the middle of the camp and slipped his deck of sabacc cards and started to shuffle them as the others joined him. "Here's somethin' ta know about our unit. We're all fucked up, seriously in various ways and we all have ways o' coping. KO's a smoker, Voss has his mystic shit, Reaper just detachs himself and so on but this." Cipher started to deal out cards to everybody as Gizmo set out a bag on candies on the ground. "We all know the game. It gets past cultural differences and attitudes. Cheatin' is acceptable, everybody know the rules?.".

"Yeah." Another Outcast said, one of their bomb boys as he eyed his cards and glanced at one of his teammates. "And you might wanna be careful what you bet.".

Cipher smirked slightly. "Oh! So we have a cardshark among us, eh? And no scramming the big guy, alright? Zed wasn't kiddin'.".

And with that, the game began and quickly switched to the favor of the Outcasts and the ARC seemed to have a talent for getting Gizmo to start laughing, which was impressive considering he didn't realize the kid even knew how to laugh. Well, this was lovely, he wondered how Chaos was doing.

* * *

Jysella quietly stood back and watched as her troops interacted with the Outcasts, it would've seem Cipher's icebreaker worked. "It's unfortunate they're all going to die, isn't it?" Jysella sighed as Reaper joined her, sporting a black eye from when Caboose had hit him earlier. "We both know Krell doesn't particulary like rebellious clones. Or mouthy young Jedi.".

"I hope you have the countermeasures set, Commander." Jysella responds quietly. Reaper had changed drastically since Zakuul, but there still that fire to him that made his intentions clear that he was still sided with the Hellions. She knew he was losing the battle, she knew the toll it was taking to try to bring Master Krell's actions to light when it came to the Jedi Council.

"He's gone erractic, Commander. There's something off about his eyes." Reaper says as he brushed off his armor, his coldness had been replaced by bone-deep weariness. "I would recommend allowing General Kalash to be made aware of our situation. He may be useful and I am not apologizing to that ARC trooper either, if he can't keep his act together, guess who meets the lightsaber next.".

Jysella glared up at him as she elbowed him roughly. "Watch yourself, you already got more then half the Hellions wanting to kill you." Jysella warns as she looked back towards the sabacc game. "Do you want the Outcasts wanting to kill you too?".

Reaper snorted as he gave her a dangerous smirk. "Why should I care what they think of or want to do to me? I'm the highiest ranking clone here! I have to take the punishment for them and trust me, it ain't pleasent. Especially when Kalash gets bitchy." Reaper says as he leaned against the tree, eyeing her wearily. "Vau and Sarge were right, y'know. Nobody actually gives a damn about any of us, we give and we give but we get nothing in return.".

"Reaper...." Jysella began to say before they both heard her Master call out for Reaper, causing the man to wince involuntarily. "Be careful.".

Reaper only offered a slight smile as he slipped his helmet back on and jogged over to her Master, the young Padawan let out a sigh as she walked over to stand beside Kalash and watch Cipher get his butt kicked by Sneak.

* * *

 

Cory sighed from his perch as he watched the three infiltration clones patrol the area.  "You need to cool it." Cory says over the private COM that Gizmo had setup for the two of them, plus Cipher. "Swipes is just trying to get in yer head.".

<I put up with enough shit from that guy. First he insults me for incompetense then he threatens Sella? You expect me to let that slide?> Chaos snaps back as he continued trekking around, as if he had grown up on his hellhole of a planet. Right, Chaos was an Umbaran in everything but species and blood, this was home to him. 

"This isn't just about him, is it? You're still pissed about Grav?" Cory knew exactly how Chaos handled grief. "And I expect you to act like a mature adult and ignore him.".

Grav had been killed on their last mission. The kid had been Chaos's protege and had gotten killed because of a slip up in communication. Krell hadn't been happy about the incompetense of all of it and had taken that out on Chaos instead of Knockback or Reaper. <Switching back to Channel Five-Six.> Chaos growls out, which caused Cory t0 follow his lead. <How's Cipher's plan going?>.

Cory leaned back and repositioned himself to take a quick look, smirking slightly. "Getting his arse kicked by Sneak, much to the delight of even the Jedi.".

Cory heard one of the Outcasts snort. <He isn't betting, is he?> Quicksilver asks.

"Yep. Rations, credits and Giz's sweets.".

<Sucker.>

Cory chuckled as he returned to his previous position. "Oh, big time. If Chaos had an interest in recruiting somebody, y'would think Ciph would wonder why." Cory remarks, recalling how many times Chaos had attempted to recruit Sneak. He was a far better cardshark then the idiot ARC trooper.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> To all readers, I hope you enjoyed this! Please feel free to leave a comment or something! :)
> 
> Additional Notes:
> 
> \- Yep, Cipher's nickname for Cory is "Carrot".


End file.
